| Population |
55,000,000 mother tongue speakers, some of whom are native bilinguals of Italian and regional varieties, and some of whom may use Italian as second language. Population total all countries 62,000,000. |
| Region |
Also spoken in 29 other countries including Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Brazil, Canada, Croatia, Egypt, Eritrea, France, Germany, Israel, Libya, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Paraguay, Philippines, Puerto Rico, San Marino. |
| Alternate names |
ITALIANO |
| Dialects |
TUSCAN, ABRUZZESE, PUGLIESE, UMBRIAN, LAZIALE, CENTRAL MARCHIGIANO, CICOLANO-REATINO-AQUILANO, MOLISANO. |
| Classification |
Indo-European, Italic, Romance, Italo-Western, Italo-Dalmatian. |
| Comments |
Regional varieties coexist with the standard language; some are inherently unintelligible (Nida) to speakers of other varieties unless they have learned them. Aquilano, Molisano, and Pugliese are very different from the other Italian 'dialects'. Piemontese and Sicilian are distinct enough to be separate languages (F.B. Agard 1981, personal communication). Venetian and Lombard are also very different (Philippe Cousson 1981, personal communication). Neapolitan is reported to be unintelligible to speakers of Standard Italian. Northern varieties are closer to French and Occitan than to standard or southern varieties (Agard, N. Vincent). 89% lexical similarity with French, 87% with Catalan, 85% with Sardinian, 82% with Spanish, 78% with Rheto-Romance, 77% with Rumanian. Most Italians use varieties along a continuum from standard to regional to local according to what is appropriate. Possibly nearly half the population do not use Standard Italian as mother tongue. Only 2.5% of Italy's population could speak standard Italian when it became a unified nation in 1861. Investigation needed: intelligibility with Pugliese with Standard Italian. National language. Grammar. SVO. Bible 1471-1985. |
| Croatia |
| Language name |
ITALIAN |
| Population |
70,000 in Croatia whose mother tongue is Italian or Venetian, including 30,000 ethnic Italian and 40,000 ethnic Croats and Istrian people (1998 Eugen Marinov). |
| Comments |
Official language. Bible 1471-1985. See main entry under Italy. |
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| Eritrea |
| Language name |
ITALIAN |
| Comments |
Spoken as a second language. A few monolinguals. Bible 1471-1985. See main entry under Italy. |
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| France |
| Language name |
ITALIAN |
| Population |
1,000,000 in France (1977 Voegelin and Voegelin). |
| Comments |
Few, if any, speakers of Italian dialects in France do not know French. Bible 1471-1985. See main entry under Italy. |
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| San Marino |
| Language name |
ITALIAN |
| Comments |
National language. Bible 1471-1985. See main entry under Italy. |
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| Slovenia |
| Language name |
ITALIAN |
| Population |
4,009 in Slovenia (1991 census). |
| Comments |
Acknowledged as autochtonous communities and protected by the constitution. Official language. Bible 1471-1985. See main entry under Italy. |
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| Switzerland |
| Language name |
ITALIAN |
| Population |
195,000 in Switzerland (1990). |
| Comments |
People in all in the Italian cantons speak Italian as first or second language. Used for education in Italian- and Ticino- (Lombard) speaking areas. Official language. Bible 1471-1985. See main entry under Italy. |
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| Vatican State |
| Language name |
ITALIAN |
| Comments |
Bible 1471-1985. See main entry under Italy. |
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